TCFT at Northern Arizona University

Photo by JT (Toan Ta)

Back in February, we were contacted by Andrew Nettels, a Business and Pre-Law student at Northern Arizona University, who also is the Treasurer for the school’s Green Fund Committee. He asked if we could help out with a project he wanted to work on in conjunction with the Facilities Services Department at the school.

Initially he requested 50 stickers just to test them out, and show around to various vested interests at the school to see if they could get approval to launch a pilot program. We liked his enthusiasm, so we sent him 100 stickers free of charge.

A couple weeks later, Andrew reached out again. The project proposal was a hit. He received approval to move forward with the project, and he had enlisted 60 volunteers to place stickers in all paper towel dispensers in both bathrooms in 90 buildings—that’s nearly 300 bathrooms—across campus. What started as a small idea had ballooned into a huge campus-wide project.

Ultimately his project seeks to change overall consumption habits of paper towel users at NAU by implementing more than 700 “These Come From Trees” stickers in nearly 300 university public restrooms. The goal is to combine wide-scale cost savings by raising awareness of sustainable practices. Andrew is hoping to see a reduction in campus usage of paper towels by 10%.

You can read more about the project here and here. We’ll post an update on the project once the results are collected.